Junda Zhu — Curriculum Vitae

Profile

End‑to‑end neuroscientist and neuroengineer across human and non‑human primate electrophysiology, behavior, and imaging. Experienced with acute and chronic implants and invasive and non‑invasive recording and neuromodulation. I build the whole pipeline—study design → acquisition (bedside/OR/online) → QC → decoding/analysis → reporting—and translate results for clinicians, engineers, and scientists. Current work spans closed‑loop and offline signal processing for cognitive and decision‑making paradigms.

Areas of expertise: Human & NHP electrophysiology · Acute & chronic implants · Invasive & non‑invasive recording · Neuromodulation workflows · Behavioral task design · Closed‑loop & offline analysis · Scientific communication · Project management

Impact & Contributions

Full‑stack study ownership: designed from scratch, coded (Python/JS), deployed, recruited, budgeted, and analyzed cognitive/memory/decision‑making tasks; collected data from 100+ participants (patients & healthy controls) across online and in‑person settings.
Reliable bedside & OR capture: ongoing project supports ~10 bedside patients (including two pediatric patients) and ~5 intra‑operative sessions; standardized setup/checklists for stable signal acquisition and smooth sterile‑field workflow.
Industry collaboration (company name confidential): beta‑tested next‑generation laminar probes in NHP models (at Vanderbilt) and human intra‑operative research (at Cedars‑Sinai); provided feedback on signal quality, insertion approach, and drape/sterilization integration.
Clinical & regulatory operations: coordinated IRB submissions/amendments; adhered to GCP/HSR and site SOPs; contributed to site start‑up readiness and onboarding/training documentation.
Reproducible analysis: standardized analysis repositories and runbooks; open‑sourced a utility library on GitHub to reduce reruns and speed iteration.
Mentorship & training: trained undergraduate and graduate students at Vanderbilt and Cedars‑Sinai; authored quick‑start guides/SOPs for onboarding.
Communication & grant enablement: produced figures/briefings for multi‑disciplinary teams; contributed preliminary datasets that supported successful NIH R01 applications.
Team player & strong IC: collaborative across surgery, neurology, and engineering while independently executing complex projects with solid project‑management practices.

Skills & Tools

Clinical Ops	IRB/ISO 14155, GCP/HSR, site start‑up & training, AE reporting
Neural Data & ML	Python, MATLAB, R (10+ yrs); pandas, scikit‑learn, PyTorch; SVM/LDA/RNN; dPCA/GAM/Mixed‑effects
Acquisition & Hardware	Blackrock NeuroPort/CerePlex; Neuralynx System; National Instruments DAQ; Open Ephys; Neuropixels; Brainsight Vet (neuronavigation/robotic guidance); headstages & amplifiers; eye‑tracking
Experiment Design	Psychtoolbox, PsychoPy/Pavlovia; Cedrus control module; Arduino; eye‑tracking
Neuroimaging	fMRI/DTI; AFNI, FreeSurfer; longitudinal analysis

Experience

Postdoctoral Scientist, Neurosurgery — Cedars‑Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA — 2024–Present

Scope: Human intracranial research (bedside/OR), neural/behavioral task design, analysis pipelines, cross‑team communication.

Built from scratch task design: built and deployed a cognitive control task (unpublished) for bedside/OR and online use; integrated Cedrus box; bilingual prompts and quick practice flow; used across ~10 bedside patients and ~5 intra‑op sessions (including two pediatric patients); >100 online participants.
External collaboration: beta‑tested next‑generation laminar probes in NHP (Vanderbilt) and human intra‑operative settings (Cedars‑Sinai); delivered usability and signal‑quality feedback (insertion angle, impedance/QC checks, sterile‑field workflow).
Ops & documentation: authored SOPs/checklists and pre‑op drills; coordinated IRB submissions and amendments; prepared concise data briefs for clinical and engineering teams.
Pipelines: standardized Python/MATLAB analysis; standardized repositories and runbooks; built a utility package and open‑sourced it on GitHub to support reuse and reproducibility.
Stack: Python (NumPy/Pandas/scikit‑learn, PyTorch), MATLAB/R; Blackrock/TDT; Git/CI; PsychoPy/Psychtoolbox; Pavlovia/Prolific.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Biomedical Engineering — Vanderbilt University — 2024

Scope: Transition bridge from Ph.D. to postdoc; collaboration across clinical and engineering teams; research translation and readiness for human electrophysiology.

Outcomes: programmed and operated Brainsight Vet neuronavigation/robotic guidance system for nonhuman primate procedures; planned targets/trajectories and integrated with task workflows.

Ph.D. Candidate, Neuroscience — Vanderbilt University — 2021–2024

Scope: Large‑scale neurophysiology; adolescent development of working memory; longitudinal imaging; statistical modeling; decoding & dynamical systems; student mentorship.

Outcomes: first‑author and collaborative publications (Nature Neuroscience 2025; iScience 2024; J Neurophysiol 2023); reproducible pipelines; mentored undergrad/grad students on analysis and experiment design.

Ph.D. Candidate, Neuroscience — Wake Forest University School of Medicine — 2018–2021

Research Assistant, Neurobiology — Southern University of Science and Technology — 2015–2018

Education & Certifications

Ph.D., Neuroscience — Vanderbilt University, 2024
B.S., Bioinformatics — Southern University of Science and Technology, 2018
CITI Program — GCP (2024–2027); Biomedical Investigators & Key Personnel/HSR (2024–2034); Conflicts of Interest (2024–2028)
HIPAA — HIPAA Privacy & Security Training (current)
Professional — Google Project Management (course)

Publications

Mozumder, R., Wang, Z., Dang, W., Zhu, J., Hammond, B.M., Machado, A., et al. Asynchronous firing and off states in working memory maintenance. Cell Reports, 45(1), 2026.
Zhu, J., Smith, C.R., Garin, C.M., Zhou, X.M., Calabro, F., Luna, B., et al. Trajectories of Response Inhibition Development in Adolescence. bioRxiv, 2026.
Jaffe, R., Dang, W., Gao, T., Zhu, J., Constantinidis, C. Prefrontal Mechanisms of Rule Learning. bioRxiv, 2026.
Zhu, J., Garin, C.M., Qi, X.‑L., Machado, A., Wang, Z., Hamed, S.B., Stanford, T.R., Salinas, E., Constantinidis, C. Longitudinal measures of monkey brain structure and activity through adolescence predict cognitive maturation. Nature Neuroscience, 2025.
McKeon, S.D., Petrie, D., Sydnor, V.J., Wang, Z., Zhu, J., Famalette, A., Foran, W., et al. Cross‑species evidence for the refinement of intrinsic neural timescales supporting executive system maturation through adolescence. bioRxiv, 2025.
Machado, A., Zhu, J., Garin, C.M., McPhail, M., Anderson, A., Calabro, F., Luna, B., et al. White matter microstructure and working memory of macaques in adolescence. Journal of Vision, 2024.
Zhu, J., Zhou, X.M., Constantinidis, C., Salinas, E., Stanford, T.R. Parallel signatures of cognitive maturation in primate antisaccade performance and prefrontal activity. iScience, 2024.
Alldritt, S., Ramirez, J.S.B., de Wael, R.V., Bethlehem, R., Seidlitz, J., Wang, Z., Zhu, J., et al. Brain Charts for the Rhesus Macaque Lifespan. bioRxiv, 2024.
Wang, W., van Dammen, L., Moody, S.N., Kiesner, J., Neiderhiser, J.M., Dismukes, A., Zhu, J., Constantinidis, C., Shirtcliff, E.A. The validation of estradiol extraction and analysis from hair. OSF Preprints, 2020.
Zhu, J., Constantinidis, C. Neural circuits and processes of working memory. Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, 2nd ed., 2024.
Zhu, J., Hammond, B.M., Zhou, X.M., Constantinidis, C. Laminar pattern of adolescent development changes in working memory neuronal activity. Journal of Neurophysiology, 2023.
Han, P., She, Y., Yang, Z., Zhuang, M., Wang, Q, Luo, X., Yin, C., Zhu, J., et al. Cbln1 regulates axon growth and guidance in multiple neural regions. PLOS Biology, 2022.
Zhu, J., Lodish, A.W., Silenzi, L., Kattner, E.A., Myatt, G.D., Gu, D., Robertson, M., et al. Working Memory and Prefrontal Neural Activity of Macaques in Early Adolescence. Journal of Vision, 2021.
Liu, Y.H., Zhu, J., Constantinidis, C., Zhou, X. Emergence of prefrontal neuron maturation properties by training recurrent neural networks in cognitive tasks. iScience, 2021.
Zhuang, M., Li, X., Zhu, J., Zhang, J., Niu, F., Liang, F., Chen, M., Li, D., Han, P., Ji, S.J. The m6A reader YTHDF1 regulates axon guidance through translational control of Robo3.1 expression. Nucleic Acids Research, 2019.
Yu, J., Chen, M., Huang, H., Zhu, J., Song, H., Park, J., Ji, S.J. Dynamic m6A modification regulates local translation of mRNA in axons. Nucleic Acids Research, 2018.

Editorial & Professional Roles

Editor — The Innovation Life journal — 2024–Present
Editorial Board Member — American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences — 2024–Present
Reviewer — Imaging Neuroscience — 2026–Present
Reviewer — Experimental Brain Research — 2026–Present
Reviewer — Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience — 2024–Present
Reviewer — Journal of Neurophysiology — 2020–Present
Member — Society for Neuroscience — 2021–Present

Presentations & Posters

Maturational trajectories of cognitive and prefrontal activity in adolescence — Johns Hopkins University, Jan 2024.
Working memory development in adolescent macaques — Working Memory Symposium 2023, May 2023.
Neuronal activity changes in the macaque prefrontal cortex during adolescence — Society for Neuroscience, Nov 2022.
Structural brain changes of the macaque brain during adolescence — Society for Neuroscience, Nov 2022.
Precision of visuospatial working memory reports in adolescent monkeys — Society for Neuroscience, Nov 2022.
NMDA dependence of serial biases in working memory — CRCNS PI Meeting, Oct 2022.
Prefrontal neural changes in early adolescence related to working memory — Society for Neuroscience, Nov 2021.
Working memory and prefrontal neural activity of macaques in early adolescence — Vision Sciences Society, May 2021.